Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

A: About ten years ago at age 42, I entered college for the first time. I had bought a business when I was 21, it was successful and kept me busy but I always wondered about college. Luckily because of scoring high on the assessments, I was able to bypass the basic writing classes and take the most advanced writing class at the university called: How to Write a Major Project. There I decided to write my first book, If the Battle is Over, Why am I Still in Uniform? It was a story I wanted to write for my two children who were 3 and 5 years old at the time when I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age 39. It tells about going through colon cancer in a funny and poignant way. One night as I was writing, I heard a weird sound, looked up from my writing and realized it was birds chirping. I had been writing nonstop all night long and was totally engaged. That is when I realized the writing bug bit.

Q: How and when did you make this dream a reality?

A: A few years later I published my first book, two years after that, the second book came out, I’d Like to Buy a Bowel Please! I also started writing a humor column in a medical newsletter regularly as well as a blog with a medical thread to it. You can read that at www.C3life.com.

Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your writing career?

A: Show, Don’t Tell! and how powerful a sentence is without superfluous words.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: My third book, Bedpan Banter which comes out in May 2009. It is a collection of funny and inspirational medical stories from many different writers including my own.

Q: Name some authors or books that have influenced your writing life in a positive way.

A: Judy Delton, an accomplished author of over 200 books including the series, Pee Wee’s Great Adventures and the Lottery Luck Club was a personal mentor to me and had the greatest influence because of her straight forward talk and presumption I would understand and put to practice all she taught me. I hope I have, sadly she died 6 months after I knew her. I enjoyed reading Brenda Ueland’s book on writing, If You Want to Write.

Q: What have you recently read or what are you reading right now that you would consider an outstanding work?

A: Some of the stories for my next book that were submitted for Bedpan Banter.

Q: What excites or ignites your soul?

A: Rich conversations with good friends over a lovely meal that I didn’t have to cook, a good book to get lost in that can be life changing, a long bike ride through a country path, when my children and husband seem happy and content, traveling to other countries where I meet the native people, and delivering a good message of hope, healing and humor.

Brenda Elsagher is a funny, energetic woman who entertains and enlightens audiences across the country as a national keynote speaker. Brenda believes that her honest outlook after going through colo-rectal cancer brought about many gifts. She became a comedian and won many titles, Twin Cities Funniest Person, Newsmaker of the year by the Women’s Press, and received the Golden “Mic” award from the American Cancer Society. Brenda is in an interfaith and inter-cultural marriage which she says is good fodder for material… and the fact that they have two teens also aids in some good comedy. Brenda says, “I believe that we all have many gifts to discover, no matter what age we may be; challenge is good. If you want to feel more alive each day, just walk outside your comfort zone and see what happens.”

Check out Brenda’s website at www.livingandlaughing.com or send an email to Brenda@livingandlaughing.com.